Having recovered his camels, 'Abdu'l-Muṭṭalib withdrew with his associates to a mountain-top to await the event, but ere he retreated from Mecca he paid a visit to the Ka'ba, and, holding in his hand the great ring-knocker on the outer door, exclaimed:—
“Lord, in Thee alone I trust against them!
Lord, repel them from Thine Holy Land!
'Tis the Temple's foe who fights against Thee:
Save Thy town from his destroying hand!”
Next day Abraha prepared to carry out his threat, and advanced with his army, at the head of which marched his The elephant Maḥmúd. great elephant Maḥmúd, against Mecca. But as the elephant advanced, an Arab named Nufayl came up to it, took hold of its ear, and cried, “Kneel down, O Maḥmúd, and return by the direct way whereby thou camest hither, for thou art on God's holy ground!” Thereat the elephant knelt down, and, notwithstanding all their blows and stabs, refused to move a step against Mecca, though ready enough to go in any other direction.
Then God sent against the Abyssinians hosts of little birds like swallows—abábíl, as the Qur'án calls them—each of The Ababíl birds. which held three little stones or pellets of clay, one in its beak and two in its claws. These they let fall on the Abyssinians, and whosoever was struck by them died, and so the great host was routed. One fugitive, they say, returned to Abyssinia to tell the tale, and when they asked him “What manner of birds were these?” he pointed up at one which still hovered over him. Even as he did so, the bird let fall the stone that it held, and he too was stricken dead.
Such are the events which gave their name to this momentous year, and to which allusion is made in the chapter of the Qur'án entitled the “Súra of the Elephant.” “Hast thou not seen,” it runs, “how thy Lord dealt with the people of the Elephant? Did He not cause their plan to miscarry? And made them like chaff consumed?”
The opinion which now generally prevails amongst European scholars is that the above legend rests on a real basis of Historical basis of the legend. fact, and that a sudden and virulent outbreak of small-pox did actually decimate and put to rout the impious invaders. Small wonder that the Arabs saw in this almost miraculous preservation of their Sanctuary the Manifest Power of God, and that the “Year of the Elephant” marked an epoch in the development of their national life.
But Yaman still groaned under the Abyssinian yoke, and Abraha of the split nose was succeeded in turn by his sons Sayf b. Dhú Yazan's appeal to Persia. Yaksúm* and Masrúq, whose hands were heavy on the Ḥimyarites, so that at length Sayf the son of Dhú Yazan went forth as their ambassador to seek relief from one of the two great empires, the Byzantine and the Persian, which then divided the mastery of that region of the world. Meeting with no encouragement from the former, he induced Mundhir, the Arab King of Ḥíra, to present him at the Persian Court. Núshírwán received him in his audience-hall, seated on his gorgeous throne, his head surmounted by, though not supporting, the gigantic barrel-like crown, glittering with rubies, emeralds, pearls, and other precious stones, supported by a chain from the roof, which was at once the glory and the oppression of the Sásánian kings.
“O King!” said Sayf ibn Dhú Yazan, when he had prostrated himself before this gorgeous apparition, “the Ravens have taken our land!”
“Which Ravens?” inquired Núshírwán; “those of Abyssinia or those of India?”
“The Abyssinians,” continued Sayf; “and now I come to thee that thou may'st help me and drive them away from me; then shall the lordship over my land be thine, for ye are preferred by us to them.”
“Thy land,” answered the King, “is too remote from ours, and is withal too poor a land, wherein is naught but sheep and camels, for us to desire it. I cannot venture a Persian army in Arabia, nor have I any wish so to do.”
So Núshírwán gave him a present of ten thousand dirhams and a robe of honour, and so dismissed him. But the Ḥim- Economical Imperialism. yarite envoy, as he went forth from the palace, cast the gold in handfuls amongst the retainers, slaves, pages, and handmaidens who stood round, and these greedily scrambled for it. When the King heard this, he recalled the envoy, and asked him how he dared deal thus with the King's gift. “What else should I do with it?” answered he; “the mountains of my land whence I come consist only of gold and silver.” And when the King heard this, he swallowed the bait so artfully presented, and detained the envoy till he should lay the matter before his advisers. Then said one of his counsellors, “O King, in thy prisons are men whom thou hast cast into fetters to put them to death; canst thou not give him these? If they perish, then is thy purpose fulfilled; but if they take the country, then is thy lordship increased.”
This ingenious plan for combining Imperial expansion with domestic economy was enthusiastically approved, and an Composition of the Persian expeditionary force. examination of the prisons produced eight hundred condemned felons, who were forthwith placed under the command of a superannuated general named Wahriz, so old that, as the story runs, his eyelids drooped over his eyes, and must needs be bound or held up when he wished to shoot.* The expeditionary force thus constituted, and accompanied by Sayf, was embarked on eight ships, of which two were wrecked, while the remaining six safely reached the coast of Ḥaḍramawt, where the little Persian army of six hundred men was largely reinforced by the Yamanite Arabs. The news of this bold invasion soon reached Masrúq, and brought him out at the head of his hosts to give battle. Then Wahriz made a great feast for his followers, and, while they were carousing, burned his ships and destroyed his stores, after which, in a spirited harangue, he pointed out that the choice between death and victory was the only choice open to them, and called on them to play the part of men. They responded (having, indeed, but little option in the matter), and the battle began. Wahriz caused some of those who stood by The historic shot of Wahriz. him to point out to him the Abyssinian king, who was rendered conspicuous by an immense ruby, the size of an egg, which blazed on his forehead. Choosing an auspicious moment, Wahriz shot an arrow at him as he rode on his mule, and the arrow struck fair in the middle of the ruby, splintering it in pieces and transfixing Masrúq's forehead.
The death of their king was the signal for the rout of the Abyssinians, whom the victorious Persians massacred without Yaman as a Persian satrapy. mercy, though sparing their Arab and Ḥimyarite allies; and Yaman became a Persian province, governed first by its conqueror, Wahriz (and for a part of his lifetime by Sayf), then by his son, grandson, and great-grandson, and lastly, in the time of Muḥammad, by a Persian named Bádhán of another family. Even in early Muhammadan days we hear much of the Banu'l-Aḥrár, or “Sons of the Noble,” as the Persian settlers in Yaman were called by the Arabs.
With the death of Núshírwán (A.D. 578), which happened
shortly after these events, the decline of the Sásánian Empire
Rapid decline of
the Sásánian
power after
Núshírwán.
began. Proud and formidable to outward
appearance as was the Persian power against
which the warriors of Islám hurled themselves in
the following century, it was rotten to the core,
honeycombed with intrigues, seething with discontent, and torn
asunder by internecine and fratricidal strife. Núshírwán's own
son, Anúsha-zádh the Christian, revolted, as has been already
mentioned, against him. His successor, Hurmazd the Fourth,
provoked by his folly and ingratitude the formidable revolt of
Bahrám Chúbín, which led directly to his estrangement from
his son Khusraw Parwíz; the flight of the latter and his two
uncles, Bistám and Bindú'è, to the Byzantines; and his own
violent death. Parwíz in turn, after a reign long indeed
(A.D. 590-627), but filled with strife, intrigue and murder, was
murdered by his son, Shírú'è, after a travesty of judicial
attainder which did but add senseless insult to unnatural
cruelty. After a reign of only a few months, which he
inaugurated by the murder of eighteen of his brothers, the
parricide sickened and died; and a fearful plague which
devastated Persia seemed the appropriate sign of Heaven's
wrath against this wicked king. His infant son, Ardashír, a
boy seven years old, succeeded him, but was besieged and
slain in his capital Ctesiphon by the usurper Shahrbaráz,
who in turn was assassinated some forty days later (June 9,
A.D. 630) by three of his bodyguard. Púrán-dukht, daughter of
Khusraw Parwíz, next ascended the perilous throne, and seemed
by her wisdom and good intentions destined to inaugurate a
brighter epoch, but, after restoring the wood of the True
Cross to the Byzantine Emperor, she too died after a reign of
sixteen months. She was succeeded by a distant cousin of her
father, who, under the name of Pírúz, reigned less than a
month, and was followed by her sister, the beautiful Ázarmí-